Sometimes work can get tedious—even if your job is one that others may think of as exciting. Which is, apparently, the case at the Missile Defense Agency in the Pentagon, because its staff has been warned to stop watching so much online porn while at work.

Bloomberg managed to get hold of an internal memo written by the Missile Defense Agency Executive Director, John James Jr, to all his staff, spelling out the problem. It explains:

"Specifically, there have been instances of employees and contractors accessing websites, or transmitting messages, containing pornographic or sexually explicit images.

"These actions are not only unprofessional, they reflect time taken away from designated duties, are in clear violation of federal and DoD and regulations, consume network resources and can compromise the security of the network though the introduction of malware or malicious code."

The memo goes on to warn that "network systems are subject to monitoring at all times" and that individuals who continue to watch porn at work will face "appropriate" disciplinary action. Without knowledge of what kind of porn's being watched, though, it's impossible to tell whether the employees in question might secretly get a kick out of that.

It's difficult to know how to react to the news. All I can think is, surely working for the Missile Defense Agency must be exciting enough to forget about porn for a while? [Bloomberg]